Ted Medina - DBA - Fishbone Home Maintenance

Heading:Ever request a quote from a contractor, agree on a price, prepay a percentage of that price to execute the agreed upon contract, and to cover materials, only to receive untimely service, poor quality and craftsmanship, and have them abandon the job before it is finished? Well, you're not alone. That's precisely what happened to me involving the deck staining contract entered into with Ted Medina dba Fishbone Home Maintenance.

After multiple broken promises of dates by which he would finish, and with the arrival of cold Rocky Mountain Colorado weather preventing the project from being properly finished until the following Spring, I filed a law suit against him on October 17, 2013.

I also filed a Police Report with the Archuleta County Sheriff Department on my stolen ladder and ran an ad in the Pagosa Springs SUN newspaper offering a reward for information leading to the return of and/or conviction for the theft of my ladder which ran in their November 7, 2013 classified ads section of that issue.

Customer Overview: Here is what happened during this awful ordeal:

On August 12, 2013, I hired Ted Medina doing business as Fishbone Home Maintenance to strip the paint from my deck railing and restain my deck and railing. He quoted me a price of $875 to which I agreed and paid him $500 as a good faith payment to execute our contract and purchase materials. That $500 check cleared my bank on that same day of August 12, 2013.

Also on August 12, 2013, I sent Ted Medina an email reiterating my expectation of quality craftsmanship and further alerted him of this customer satisfaction web site where consumers world-wide can post reports - and comment on other consumer's reports - on levels of customer satisfaction received from vendors. I also informed Mr. Medina that I would post this report on my satisfaction of the service and quality he provided, during which I also expressed my belief that this report could provide an advertising service (free-of-charge) of significant monetary value to his business; and to please consider this report as he performed our contract.

On August 25, I asked Mr. Medina in an email when the project would be completed. On Monday, August 26, his response was, "The deck will be done this week."

On August 30, I expressed my concern to Mr. Medina via email about the project's lack of progress, the damage to the wood which was removed from the railing, from the rain, sun, the lack of the screws being removed and the lack of the wood being stacked on a flat surface to keep it from warping and twisting. No reply was received. On Aug 31, in an email I requested that he deliver the stain so that I could apply some to 2 small slats on the garage that had been recently replaced by another contractor. That request was also ignored.

On Tuesday, Sep 3, Mr. Medina came over in the evening to convey his excuses why the job was not getting done, assuring me that the project would commence completion the following day. It did not. All that happened was that his 16' trailer was left on my property for the next 3 days. On that second evening, Thursday, Sep 5, via email, I informed him that if the project did not commence completion the next day I would begin looking for another contractor to finish the job.

Friday evening, September 6, I emailed Mr. Medina noting that he had removed his trailer from my property but had not done any work on the deck. (It was at this time that my ladder went missing from my property.) I informed him that another contractor was supposed to look at the deck over the weekend.

The other contractor did not show up and the project languished on for another 11 days with a negligible spattering of work being performed.

On Tuesday, Sep 17, Mr. Medina emailed me the following: "Larry, I will be working on it this week... It will get done."

On Monday, Sep 30, Mr. Medina emailed me again: "I will have it done this week for sure." I replied that if he did not keep his word this time, I would have no choice but to seek satisfaction by other means.

By Thursday, Oct 17, when I filed a claim in court, and a police report for my stolen ladder, only about 35% of the project had ever been completed.

OUTCOME: Here's the final vendor/customer resolution of this incident:

Law Suit

Trial took place on Friday, November 8, 2013.

The judge ruled in my, the customer's, favor; not in the vendor's favor.

The judgement awarded the full claim amount, the filing fee, and service fee.

The defendant did not pay the judgement after the ruling so I asked the Court for a Motion & Order for Interrogatories - Long Form, which was granted if the defendant did not pay me by Tuesday evening, November 12.

I was paid on Tuesday evening.

Ladder

I never received a response to my classified ad offering a reward for information leading to its return.

When Mr. Medina paid me for the lawsuit judgement, I informed him of the theft of my ladder from my property during the project. I told him that I was not specifically accusing him of its theft, but due to the peculiar circumstances of where it was stored I was convinced that only someone related to the deck project would have been in a position to know of its existence and whereabouts. I asked him to ask anyone related to his business if they knew about its disappearance and whereabouts. He said he would do better than that, and actually physically search for it too. I never heard back from him.

On November 18, 2013, the Archuleta County Sheriff Department contacted me to ask for the cell phone number of Mr. Medina so they could contact him on a different matter. I asked them if they had any luck finding my ladder of which I had supplied them with a picture, and the original sales reciept when I filed the police report with them in October. They said no. So I asked them to look for it if they had occasion to visit where he was living.

I received a phone call from a Deputy later that day that they had located my ladder inside Mr. Medina's garage. The Deputy asked me if I would be willing to not pursue charges if Mr. Medina was willing to return my ladder and supply me with a letter of apology. I said I would, if the ladder and apology were delivered on that same day. When I arrived at home from work on that Monday, November 18th, my ladder was leaning against my garage and the letter of apology (at right) was attached to my front door.

I do not accept Mr. Medina's apology letter. I believe it is disingenuous and lacks credibility. I have requested a police report from the Sheriff's Office with which I intend to pursue pressing charges for the theft of my ladder. If Mr. Medina is in denial and will not admit to the theft of my ladder, his apology is not worth the paper it is written on. Furthermore, he will likely continue to believe that dishonesty and theft are acceptable business practices and may potentially continue to hurt the area's economic development by preventing reputable businesses from getting a foot hold in the community and might drive local residents to seek contractor's outside of the local area to search for reputable home maintenance contractors.

I had never mentioned to Mr. Medina the police report I filed, nor the classified ad I placed requesting information leading to the return of and/or conviction for the theft of my ladder. I did not want to alert him to, or put him on his guard against the measures I had pursued to gain its return.

Deck Status

After spending a couple of full days picking screws out from between the decking, removing broken off screws and protruding screws from the boards that made up the railing which were left lying askew and scattered where they fell on the ground below and around the deck for many weeks as well as scattered all around the deck to warp and twist in the sun and rain, not to mention the safety hazard this posed, and after neatly stacking the railing wood in a dry flat place for the winter, only the posts and the boards running along the tops of the posts are what act as the temporary railing for the current winter until the weather permits the completion of this deck staining project. And these make-shift deck railing boards have no weatherized stain protection from the weather throughout the harsh Rocky Mountain Colorado weather till late Spring 2014 when this project can be finished.

I have 13 pictures of what is described in #1 above - including many examples of the broken boards which were obviously removed hurriedly and carelessly, sustaining damage rendering them unreplaceable - which were entered into evidence in the court hearing.

My home owners insurance agent made a routine visit to my property during this project expressing concern over the state of the deck which prompted me to clean up the mess that this contractor made of this project to avoid a potential increase in my insurance premium or cancellation of my policy.

By the time this deck staining project is completed - probably I will finish it myself - I will have been without the use of my deck for between 8 to 10 months!

Customer Satisfaction Rating Factors:

The following factors affected the rating:

Ability to bid the job, perform the services as purported, in a timely manner, while delivering an acceptable level of quality craftsmanship at the quoted price. (0)

Possesses a high level of integrity in performing the deliverables in #1 above. (0)

Reliability and trustworthiness. (0)

Displayed a sufficient level of experience and expertise to get a quality job done on time and within budget. (0)

Probability of ever using this vendor's services again or recommending them to others. (0)

So if I were to begin my ranking with a rating of 0, the final rating would be the result below:

Customer Satisfaction Rating:(On a scale of 1 to 10)0with the annotation ofHire at your own Risk - Buyer Beware!

Lessons Learned:

Ask for references, and call them, asking them to rank their customer satisfaction with that particular project and vendor. Also, ask the references to describe exactly what they liked best, and what maybe they didn't like so much, about that project and/or vendor.

Google your Secretary of State web site and search for whether your contractor is listed as a registered business in your State. Neither Ted Medina nor Fishbone Home Maintenance are registered businesses in the State of Colorado.

Ask whether the contractor is bonded and insured, and if so ask for documentation to verify that it has not expired.

It's very difficult to find a customer satisfaction oriented business in today's world of profit driven organizations. So when you find one, spread the word because it is in all consumers interest that these vendors continue to succeed and proliferate! And if you get burned by a disreputable business, also spread the word to spare your fellow consumers the grief you had to endure!

We, as consumers, must spread the word amongst ourselves to support the businesses who deliver customer satisfaction to their customers (and visa-versa too, of course, like this report is doing); especially since they are getting harder and harder to find in the 21st century!